To Stop Tyranny
by BeyondASoul
Summary: The Diamond Empire is reeling from the Death of Pink Diamond, but the Crystal Gems aren't doing too great either. Follow the adventures of Ruby, Sapphire, Amethyst, Pearl, Rose, Bismuth, and others to come, and watch as they struggle against a force bent on world subjugation. Rated M for graphic violence and course language.
1. Intro

Okay so this is new got an idea and wrote down this into in the middle of the night so we'll see how this progressess. Keep in mind this is just an intro, a bit of backstory if you will. Hopefully better content is otw. Thanks for Reading. I'll try to update weekly.

When civilization first emerged, four sisters help cultivate them into empires. Ruled separately but acting together, the sisters stretched their rule far and wide, each with their own skills for diplomacy and warfare. Blue could make their opponents experience any emotion she chose, many surrendered before they even begun to fight. Yellow's technological prowess easily surpassed any other empire. Pink could figure out what anyone was thinking, she saw dreams and thoughts like they were leaves on the breeze and was an expert at wielding them, if abeitedly nieve when approaching situations. Finally, White had strength, from mental willpower to physical, the other sisters had no power over her and her soldiers were the best and most elite in the land, it has been said a White soldier is equal to any number of the other's best warriors.

The sisters were powerful by themselves, but together they swept through the continent. Wherever they went they "settled" by any means necessary, taking slaves to fuel their war effort when necessary, or available after the slaughter. The land of the Pearls was subjected first and very few of the weak, untrained race escaped. Many sided with the Diamonds including the Quartzes, a numerous strong race suited for melee combat, the Peridots, a small community of thinkers, the Agates, who prized and provided strict discipline, and the Emeralds, a race who trained from birth in the art of warfare and strategy.

The further they spread, the more power they gained, the less of a threat anyone was. A caste system was formed based on contribution to the war effort, with the Diamond heirs at the top, since the Diamonds could not achieve total domination in their life, the goal exist with their descendants, and the powers left to their daughters, and their daughter's daughters, and so on.

Eventually, the Diamond Empire was at the doorstep of the final kingdom, The Kingdom of Earth, home of the Humans. This was the most forward and backwards kingdom, while it's dicidens were weak and primitive but possessed something unheard of to many people of the Empire, choice. After awhile Pink Diamond's ninth heir, who was in charge of this final campaign, was killed. People had no idea what to make of this, for a Diamond had never been killed, and she had no heir, no one to obtain her power, a line had been severed.

The group of rebels that had killed her were ecstatic, led by a mysterious member of the Quartz race known as Rose, that the Diamonds had abandoned this land and hoped to drive them back and free more land. Alas, things did not work out for them as the remaining Diamonds lashed out, using a disease, known as corruption, to turn friends into vicious monsters.

In the end, the only rebels to survive was a battle-hardened woman from Pearl, known as Pearl, the famous Rose Quartz, Amethyst, a female runt with a big heart from Quartz, a Ruby woman and a Sapphire woman duo from lands long conquered and forgotten, and Bismuth, a Bismuth male that traded in architecture for blacksmithy. The rag-tag group followed the Rose back to Earth to recover and rebuild and protect humankind.


	2. A Day in the Lives of the Crystal Gems

**So this is my first real chapter so I was trying to make it well good and held it for an extra two weeks to add like three sentences, so sorry for people who were looking forward to this earlier. I'll try harder next time, enjoy!**

* * *

" _The grain against the tide becomes the thorn in the side of the dragon. When can the annoyance become fatal?"_

"You know Sapph, it'd be great if you weren't so cryptic half the damn time."

"You know you love it, Ruby" Sapphire deadpanned. She had a far off look in her eye, like she did before she had a vision. It wasn't uncommon for members of the Sapphire race to get physic powers, and while foresight was rare and well sought after, Sapphire cared for freedom far more than she cared about wealth. _'And Ruby, of course'._

"I love _**you**_ Sapph, there's a difference" Ruby grumbled with a pout, clearly too tired to worry about a prophecy.

Sapphire giggled and said "I'm going to KO check who's awake" as she strolled out the small tent into the forest clearing.

Yawning against the sudden wave of heat Sapphire looked around, spotting Pearl emerge out of the dull pink tent that she and Rose share.

Giving a yawn herself she turn to Sapphire and asked " Have u seen Rose lately?"

"I'm sorry I have not, Pearl" Sapphire answered calmly, almost monotone. Almost.

"Weird. I didn't see her last night either, I thought she might have been scouting late."

"Possibly, you never know" Sapphire answered, her voice betray none of the worry she felt.

"How can you be so calm with Rose out stars know where, in who knows the danger?" Pearl all but shrieked.

Sapphire just shook her head and said " I know more than you think."

Before Pearl could formulate an answer a purple skinned blur raced to the fire pitt about a foot away from the Sapphire and all but screamed " I'm hungry!"

The shorter blue woman couldn't help but agree with Amethyst, it was time to eat. As if on cue Ruby emerged from their tent looking at Pearl expectantly. The white woman just shook her head and muttered " Sometimes it's like dealing with kids" as she started a fire and began rummaging around for something to cook.

* * *

The crunch of leaves was heard throughout the forest, with large footsteps trailing a good distance behind. _'But not far enough, never far enough away.'_ The fact that she could hear the footsteps, even as faint as they were, meant she was nowhere near to far enough away. There was no way she could outpace it, she would probably have to face it. After all, she was smarter than whatever it was that was chasing her, and brains can beat brawn if applied well enough, right?

Turning around required much more will power than should have been necessary, and the woman found herself unconsciously thinking _'please don't let me recognize them'._ Of course, she heard the beast before she saw it, but it still spooked her when it ran around a fallen tree. It wasn't large, actually it was probably smaller than her, but it was quite strong. _'A quartz no doubt'_ she thought bitterly, ' _of course, the hardest thing possible to fight.'_ The lack of light only contributed to the horror, blacker than the darkest night, equivalent to that of a void. Its eyes, a bright purple, held the slightest spark of intelligence behind a cloud of anger, the held an almost glassy look. Rose wondered if somewhere deep down did they know what they were doing.

The two warriors spent a while sizing each other up, before a pink blade left a scarlet scabbard, and a pink shield rotated along shoulders appearing in the hand opposite the sword. A grunt from the opposite figure, the sunlight just barely filtering through the trees gave the beast a twisted look, as if he was sentient once before. _'Because he was, before….'_.

She wasn't in the mood, or situation, to dwell on that, on her failing humanity for these beast that were once her allies, her champions, her _friends_. She'd killed too many, was becoming numb to it, and that's what scared her most, that she could do it without feeling. Before she could break down, the single thought that kept her alive this entire time she was away came back. _' It's you or him, and you have people to live for.'_ She shed a single tear and she leapt, ending the confrontation with a limp body behind her, a severed head at her feet, and salt water streaming down her cheeks. The worst part is, she didn't know who she was crying for.

* * *

"It means what you think it means Amethyst" Pearl said, not even bothering to hide the irritation in her voice. "We're out of food." With an over dramatic sigh and a faint that was a hundred percent fake, the purple girl tumbled to the ground. She couldn't have been more than sixteen, so maybe twelve when she joined the rebellion. Amethyst was rambunctious at best, and Pearl could find many different things to nag the young Quartz about. _'Not entirely fair to her but sometime she can be so obnoxious and …. her._ ' The final though had very little malice towards the youngest member of the team. Maybe adoration, maybe something less, maybe something _more._ Whatever it was, she didn't have the time to think before Sapphire was calling everyone into the center of camp for a meeting.

"We have to come to a decision," Sapphire called in her monotone "and since Rose is not here, we'll put it to a vote. all who want to hunt for our food move to the left, and all those who wish to go to the human village to trade, move to the right."

As per usual Amethyst moves to the human side, "They're so much fun to be around," her usual excuse. Bismuth and Ruby decide to, which is rare for Bismuth to want to do anything but forge. But the biggest shock is Pearl moving with Amethyst after a cautious step forward. The blue person simply raised a eyebrow towards the lanky woman and said, "These are the groups, Pearl and Amethyst trade with the humans for supplies, but not exclusively food, Ruby and I should catch more than enough for us."

Silence. The forest was still, faded green leaves, were the only sign that things were changing, slowly turning into seasons experienced only so vibrantly here. _'Earth truly is a beautiful place,'_ Ruby thought happily. Light filter through the tree rather strongly, leaving enough shadow to hide, and enough light to see. She was currently tracking a deer herd, with very little luck, and relished the silent presence of her lover in the trees above. _'You never know when one of_ them _could jump out of nowhere.'_

The Corrupted, as the group has begun to call them, were known to lurk around the woods. Sometimes stalking, sometimes blundering loudly and clumsily. But always dangerously. They made a mistake when the Corruption first transformed their friends into beast to underestimate their power, and lost many good friends because of it. A year later, this was all that was left of the mighty Crystal Gem: seven warriors with nowhere else to go and no one else to turn to. Of course everywhere else was Diamond controlled, and Rose refused to bring humans to fight our battles. Even if our battles were their battles, chivalry (if you could even call it that) was annoying sometimes.

An hour of following hoof-prints and trampled shrubs led them to a herd of about 15 deer, and the "eye in the sky" had no trouble shooting down for deer with her lovely blue bow, killing three and injuring a forth. Shooting the red woman a small grin that beamed nothing but pride, she took off after then injured deer, leaving a unlucky Ruby alone to carry three large bodies back to the makeshift camp.

* * *

It took her longer than she would care to admit to figure out that she was alone. The allure of the hunt got to be way too much sometimes, and she often found herself in situations very similar. _'At least before it_ _happened,'_ the blue woman thought bitterly. In the year following the disease, the Crystal Gems rarely were alone. Always in pairs if leaving camp, even Bismuth followed this rule, because packs of Corrupted were known to attack at the worst moment possible for people and being alone had gotten more that one Gem dead fast. Sapphire shook her head in an effort to clear her mind. _'I better get back to tracking'_ she thought as a last ditch effort to think about anything else.

True to the intent, she looked followed the blood trail for about a mile or two before she picked up a sound deep in the woods. The sound was faint, almost gentle sound, and it begged her to follow. The closer she got, the more sure she was of what the sound was. Someone was crying… in the middle of the woods… where monsters roamed. Her instant instinct was to run, find Ruby, or someone who was better at this than her, and not mess this up completely. After all Sapphire wasn't completely "in touch" with her emotions. She had always been forced to hide them, as a result her emotional growth was rather stunted. But what logic got the better of her, as it normally did when not around a certain red-skinned female, she decided this person needed immediate help if they were to survive.

Tracking the sound for another minute or so, she found, to much surprise, the missing member of the group. Rose Quartz. She looked as regal as ever, even in her current state. Distraught eyes cried tears for a former comrade laying lifeless at her feet. The iconic white dress laying on the ground slightly torn with the faintest hint of grass stains despite Rose clearly having been here for at least the better part of an hour. She was shuddering from the hard sobs that racked her body, clearly devastated from the act she had to commit.

"I killed them Sapphire," Rose said, choked sobs escaping around the words, "They were our friends, we fought beside them, died beside them, and loved with them. How did it end like this?" Her final sentence had experienced the worst of her crying. Even with Rose this devastated, Sapphire couldn't help but think _'I should have went and gotten_ _ **literally**_ _anyone else to do this.'_ Letting out a resigned sigh in place of the train of thought, she kneeled beside her and began to do her best to comfort the crying Quartz.

"Rose it's not your fault, they would have killed you, and as our leader, we'd be dead too, I think, there are alot of future where we all die anyway, I mean that's not the point, we need you to survive." Sapphire was sure she felt worse than when she started.

But, to her surprise, the pink haired Quartz woman had a smaller version of her signature grin plastered on her face, chuckling softly. She breathed in a deep breathe and let in out slowly before she spoke, " Thank you Sapph… I needed that."

"The whole we'll die anyway part too?" Sapphire asked cautiously, she was bad with this stuff.

A full laugh this time, "The honesty was appreciated, and you clearly don't how to lie well." As the blue girl cocked her head questioningly Rose quickly amended, "Which isn't a bad thing, it's quite comforting actually."

"Noted. We should head back now, it's getting dark."

They got up from their spot on the ground and set off towards the camp. No words were exchanged between the gems, and when the group of two returned as expected the only was up was whoever was lucky enough to be stuck on guard duty tonight. Needless to say, Ruby was happy to see them both back in one piece, maybe one slightly more than the other. After about ten minutes of light conversation Rose retired to her shared tent with Pearl, and Sapphire gave her lover a kiss on the cheek and wished her to have fun being bored to death. Ruby was fine with it, she had her blade, and she had a rock. She's gladly watch the sparks fly off the blade til the sun rose.


End file.
